


The Fate of Cactus Steven

by Chromite



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon), Steven Universe Future (Cartoon)
Genre: Falling Apart, Island - Freeform, Ocean, Post-Episode: s06e10 Prickly Pair, Unexpected Meeting, Walking, effects of salt water and pressure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22037314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chromite/pseuds/Chromite
Summary: My take on where Cactus Steven went after the events of Prickly Pair.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	The Fate of Cactus Steven

>Cactus Steven marched into the sea after leaving Steven's house. While parting from the only being he had ever known was hard for the plant, he knew that his presence, his repetition and copying of Steven's actions, was only bringing his creator harm. The large plant didn't know where he was going to go, but he knew he couldn't stay there.  
>As Cactus Steven ventured further into the ocean, having traveled through the water for many hours and reaching depths unseen by most human eyes, he felt his body begin to weaken. Unknown to the cactus, salt water was very harmful to most plants on Earth, cacti included. While his body was strengthened by Steven's magical spit, it was still subject to the pressure of the ocean and the salty water.  
>Still, Cactus Steven pressed on. Turning around wasn't a choice, but he knew with his body weakening, he'd need to find a way to get out of the water sooner rather than later. Pushing his body harder, he picked up the pace.  
>Another three hours had passed. Little pieces of cactus were beginning to break away from Cactus Steven's arms and legs, the salty water and the pressure combining to break his body apart slowly. Pain was shooting through his form now, his mouths screaming a gurgled scream as the pain started growing more severe, the bubbling gurgles growing particularly strong every time a new piece broke off of him, especially when chunks started breaking away from one of his five heads.  
>Cactus eyes and parts of his five mouths were breaking away from Cactus Steven now. The salt water stung intensely on the exposed inner cactus parts, making him feel like thousands of tiny needles were piercing his form. His body was covered in dozens of those exposed parts now, the pain was beginning to become too much for the plant to bear.  
>Then Cactus Steven saw it, with his five remaining eyes. The sand around him was beginning to slope up again. Through the distortion of the waves, he could see a large shape in the distance. To the plant, it looked like the large shape was split into two larger mounds ahead. Still, the sloping sand meant he could get out of the salt water, away from the stinging and from the pressure of the sea. With luck, he could find some normal water and take time to heal his body.  
>Pushing his three legs as hard as they would move, Cactus Steven started to run towards the larger shape, up the sloping sand and closer to the surface of the water. He could feel the warmth of the waves increase around him as he drew closer to the surface, the sun's touch shining through brighter the closer he got. Small pieces started to break rapidly off of his legs as he moved and drew ever closer to the surface, eventually causing the large plant to collapse down as his legs became too weak to support his form.  
>Cactus Steven wasn't about to give up. He began clawing at the sand with his arms, pushing with the remains of his legs, his belly dragging in the sand as he inched his way towards the beach and out of the waves. By the time Cactus Steven had pulled himself onto the beach, he was a wreck. One of his heads had broken off entirely, he was missing half of his larger leg and one of his smaller ones, his arms were riddles with spots where chunks were missing, he was down to four eyes, and only one mouth still functioned. With a gurgled sigh, he collapsed on the beach and closed his eyes, letting the rays of the sun hit his backside. Now that he was out of the salty water, he no longer felt the sting of it on the open wounds along his body. He could take time to rest, regenerate a little, and regain his strength before he started exploring the strange place he had arrived.  
\-------  
>When Cactus Steven woke up, the first thing he noticed was he was no longer laying on a beach in the sun. He looked around and saw he was inside a strangely domed structure, with a singular large opening revealing the outside world. Looking through the opening, he could see strange brown structures, some were shaped like giant heads, others were humanoid figures with outstretched hands and familiar yellow stars on their chests.  
>The second thing Cactus Steven notices was his body. The spots where pieces of him had broken away were now covered with strange green patches. To him, it looked like someone, or something, had stitched something onto his body to cover the exposed spots, shielding them from the elements. He would later understand the patches were leaves from the trees that were on the island he had arrived on, and he would see who had helped him soon enough.  
>Tentatively, Cactus Steven tried to stand up. He felt his whole body shake as he stood, his legs still weakened from his journey, but able to support his form once more. Slowly, he made his way out of the structure he was in, and into the open air.  
>Cactus Steven squinted his four remaining eyes as he walked out into the sunlight and onto the brown tiles outside. They were a start contrast of texture from the ground within the huts, a little harder under his feet. Around him, past the head shaped and figure shaped buildings, he spotted strange tall things, brown going up from the ground, but with strange thin green stuff sprouting from the top of them.  
>Cactus Steven briefly pondered where he was, before his attention was turned towards movement nearby. His eyes widened as he caught sight of the figures that were starting to emerge from the structures around him, and at how familiar they seemed. They reminded him of smaller versions of his creator, one of his arms touching one of his own heads as he compared his looks to theirs.  
>Cactus Steven noticed they all had yellow stars painted on their stripped green bodies. He noticed the worry in some of their eyes, while others had an expression that spoke of a determination to protect the others. He realized that they were all watching him, with curiosity and concern.  
>The crowd that had gathered parted in a spot in front of one of the head shaped structures. From within stepped out nine more figures. Eight of the nine had spines sticking out of their forms, particularly along their small arms/ The ninth figure looked different from the others. It didn't have the poofy hair shape on its head, its body was shriveling up in spots, creating a wrinkled old appearance to the figure. The wrinkled figure stepped past the others quickly, moving closer to Cactus Steven. The elder figure appeared to run its eyes along Cactus Steven's form, an action that made the large plant nervous. What were these things? What did they want? Why was this one eyeing him like that?  
>After a minute of looking, the elder figure nodded in satisfaction, it turned towards the crowd and uttered out some noises, things that sounded like grumbles and grunts to Cactus Steven. The crowd started to nod at the words of the elder, making Cactus Steven tense up more. He didn't understand what was being said. What if they were going to attack him, like his creator once had?  
>The elder figure turned back around and smiled. Then, it did something Cactus Steven wasn't expecting. The elder's arms opened and stretched out wide.  
>Cactus Steven was taken aback by the gesture, one he recognized. The last thing his creator, his role model, had shown him. Cactus Steven's four remaining heads smiled as he spread out his five arms to copy the gesture as best he could, kneeling down in the process.  
>The figures around him muttered again, nodding as they spread out their arms too. Cactus Steven felt the elder's arms touch part of his form gently, similar to the action Steven had shown him. Catcus Steven gently wrapped two of his arms around the elder, being careful not to hold too tight.  
>When the pair stopped hugging, the Elder Watermelon Steven plucked a few spines out of his form before addressing the crowd again. While Cactus Steven still couldn't understand what was being said, he had a feeling he had found a place where he could belong.  
\-------  
>So it was that Cactus Steven wound up on Mask Island, and started living with the Watermelon Stevens. Eventually, he would pass on, his body becoming the sproutlings for new Cactus Stevens to grow, the new generation of Cactus Stevens looking more like their melon counterparts, but still subject to gaining extra arms and legs from damage they incurred on their bodies. The Cactus Stevens and the Watermelon Stevens would eventually come to fully understand each other, gaining a common language, a mix of the words the original Cactus Steven had learned from Steven and the grunts and growls of the Watermelon Stevens. The island would soon see cactus animals sprout up along the melon animals as well, fewer in number than the melon creatures, but just as diverse. The island was becoming its own little world, a world for plant based creatures.


End file.
